Windows 8 will probably be a big thing for Intel in the tablet market, if they can actually price competitively. But since they felt it necessary to make Windows RT, I don't think that will be true for years yet.

As a desktop system, it's already a flop. Businesses will ignore it and consumers will be annoyed by the needless changes. The Windows Store on a desktop platform is going to be a disaster; I don't think Valve has much to fear from the folks responsible for GFWL.

I think the desktop version will get some love from people using the tablets that want a similar interface. People just flat out upgrading from 7 to 8 though, I see that as less likely, unless something amazing comes out of 8.

Koatanga wrote:At least we can look forward to there being no upgrade path from 7 to 9 except via 8, just like how you couldn't go from XP to 7 without going through Vista.

Oh, I dunno, it could be done with a clean install.Legally and licensewise you were allowed to, just no out-of-the box upgrade options (and required changing something in the registry), overall not that hard.

To be fair, there isn't really much of an incentive to upgrade to 8 from 7 in the first place. If you're on Vista (god forbid) then I could maybe see jumping to 8. If you're still using XP, you really should upgrade to at least 7, as I imagine it's not going to be supported for too much longer (if it even still is.)

I do wonder what the US military's plans are, since we tend to be behind when upgrades are concerned (I know some places that are still working on a Vista upgrade... though I'm currently on a machine with 7.)

Skye1013 wrote:I do wonder what the US military's plans are, since we tend to be behind when upgrades are concerned (I know some places that are still working on a Vista upgrade... though I'm currently on a machine with 7.)

With the migration rolling out, i find it hard to believe we will be rolling out win 8 anytime soon. Having finished our 7 push last year, and still running a few 2k3 servers... we are way behind the ball. For once it might be a good thing, looking at it from a network admin's point of view, win 8 would be a horrible idea for productivity and hopping to it right away scares me with vulnerabilities. But it is the military so who know what we'll get forced to push onto our users.

I remember reading two main points why desktop users should not upgrade to Windows 8.

(1) You cannot turn off the Windows 8 UI interface (originally named "Metro"). There's no "Classic Mode" or anything.

(2) All non-Win8 applications are still accessible, but they will all use the ugly old icons instead of automatically default to a style that fits into the Windows 8 UI.

I'm not sure if anything have changed since then, but I sure am not going to upgrade. Touch oriented interface simply won't work on a desktop where the display is usually at an arm's length.

The Leap gadget looks very promising, though. If Windows is able to integrate it in such a way that I only have to lift my hands (or even just fingers) to point at the screen and it correctly detects my gestures, then it's perfect.

But still, since I work with text just about all the time, a touch interface is more a toy for me than anything. It would do more good for CAD people, maybe?

Dual monitor support is marginally better, the taskbar stretches across both monitors.

The start screen is definitely not designed for desktop use, but it does work, and I'm getting used to it. I find that I've been keeping desktop/taskbar shortcuts for my most frequently used applications, and leave icons/shortcuts for less frequently used apps in the start screen, and it's working out pretty well. I actually am starting to like it better than the old start menu.

If you really hate the start screen, you can more or less ignore it completely after booting up, and then the OS looks and feels almost identical to win7, if slightly prettier.

Some of the 'metro' (or whatever MS wants to call it now) apps are alright, built-in netflix is pretty nice.

From completely powered off to the windows login screen, it seems like it takes aproximately the same time to boot as windows 7. However, it's nearly instantaneous to go from the login screen to the desktop. Seriously, it's fast.

For $40 bucks, I'd say it's worth the upgrade for the boot time decrease alone, but I wouldn't pay full price. I like that MS is trying to standardize desktop and tablet OS/applications. iOS and android are both nice, but they're still not up to the functionality of a true destop OS, and Windows 8 is heading in that direction.

The only real downside I found was the start screen, but I've been getting used to it, and might actually start preferring it over the old start menu. The only thing that I can say that I probably won't ever like about the new UI, is that it's more annoying to power down the PC(hover cursor in top corner of screen ->settings->power->shut down.) I think think that's because most tablets are designed to hibernate/lock rather than powering down completely.

Courage not of this earth in your eyesFaith from far beyond lies deep inside

Arnock wrote:The only real downside I found was the start screen, but I've been getting used to it, and might actually start preferring it over the old start menu. The only thing that I can say that I probably won't ever like about the new UI, is that it's more annoying to power down the PC(hover cursor in top corner of screen ->settings->power->shut down.) I think think that's because most tablets are designed to hibernate/lock rather than powering down completely.

It's fairly easy to make a start menu shortcut to shutdown if you want. I have both shutdown and reboot on my start screen. The start screen is fairly nice in general - it needs one new feature to be ideal imo (live tiles from desktop apps). You can pin desktop apps to the taskbar, and you can still do the start button -> start typing trick, as in 7 (though it categorizes the search, rather than just presenting everything). Just make sure you have a look through the keyboard shortcuts (Win + C and Win + X get a lot of use here).

I'm liking win8 a lot. I was considering getting one of the start menu replacements and just treating it like 7, but I find that (limited) use of metro apps is even good - especially on a three-screen setup. I've got an IM client snapped to the edge of one screen constantly, and some of the metro-style apps are quite nice (they tend to look a lot cleaner than other apps - no taskbar and very little UI means more space for actual content). Additionally, there's a lot of minor improvements that are so much better than in 7 (file copy progress box is night and day, as is the task manager).

^same - well I only have 2 monitors, but one is my display, I don't want a taskbar there - the other is my "stuff" monitor where I keep the taskbar and all the files/shortcuts I want while I'm using my Display.

Ugh. Can this be changed? I have four monitors and would hate to have the taskbar run all the way across.

Personally I've always dragged the taskbar to the left of the screen so it runs vertically down the side. I find it far easier to use, especially since everything is in widescreen now giving more space at the sides. Means it is only ever on the primary monitor as well. Having the start menu drop down as you click it feels much more natural as well.

I've also finally gave in after realizing that I bought 32GB RAM for my new machine but only had Windows 7 Home Premium (which allows only 16GB). It really isn't bad. Everything I used worked perfectly as before. The new "Start" is just a full-screen version of the good old start menu, or one could also look at it as just a desktop with rectangular widgets. I've come to love hitting the Win key and getting the weather, calendar, new mail and news headline updates all at a glance. Hitting the Windows key again while in the Start Screen will take me back to my previous application, be it an App or a traditional program like World of Warcraft. The task manager is way better, too.

I run a dual monitor setup and this time the "taskbar on all monitors" option is actually useful! If I remember correctly, back in Windows 7, if I show the taskbar on all desktops, then each taskbar will show all the windows on all the desktops, which was absolutely stupid. Now the taskbar on each desktop only list the windows residing on that desktop, making task switching much easier. That's how multi-desktop should be done! (And the wallpapers on each desktop can change independently, too!) The system tray only appear on the main desktop, which is perfect.

As for the new breed of "Apps", I don't really use them. We're not forced to use any of those full screen apps.

As you can see, the only Apps I have there are the weather, news, mail, photo and the Windows 8 App Store. Everything else are what's called "traditional desktop programs". It's just an oversized Start menu with some dynamic displays. The two pics above Torchlight 2 are the Desktop app and the Photo app (it automatically slide-shows all the pics in my Pictures media library, used here just as eye candy).

Most of the built-in Apps are bad at best, they may be good enough for tablets, but they're just not good enough for a desktop.

Overall, I must say it was the right decision to upgrade while it's still on discount; but this is probably one edition of Windows that can be ignored. It's good. Make no mistake, it runs solid. But if Windows 7 runs fine for you, there's no reason to upgrade. I only upgraded because it was cheaper to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro than it was to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate.

is there a way to keep the menu bar with settings/computer shut down permanently open or create shortcuts to that? annoys me that I have to move the mouse into a corner to make that visible. might be good on a phone/tablet, but I certainly got enough space on my 2 screens to show that.Otherwise it looks neat, although I wish more stuff could be configured. The whole control panel/settings thing doesn't allow you to do all that much. Plus it certainly feels like microsoft would once again love to have and pass on all personal info they can somehow get out of me. So many options 'do you want to share this and that' that made me feel uneasy and that I turned off ...

Kai wrote:is there a way to keep the menu bar with settings/computer shut down permanently open or create shortcuts to that? annoys me that I have to move the mouse into a corner to make that visible. might be good on a phone/tablet, but I certainly got enough space on my 2 screens to show that.Otherwise it looks neat, although I wish more stuff could be configured. The whole control panel/settings thing doesn't allow you to do all that much. Plus it certainly feels like microsoft would once again love to have and pass on all personal info they can somehow get out of me. So many options 'do you want to share this and that' that made me feel uneasy and that I turned off ...

Win+C opens the charms bar. There are also shortcuts for the various things on the bar - Win+Q for search is the one that springs to mind, since I use that a lot. Looks like it's Win+I for settings and win+H for share.

I liked desktop 8 a lot (mostly using it a 7 + occasional snapped apps). So I went and bought a surface RT a couple of weeks back, and I'm liking that more than the other tablets I've used. Maybe I'm just odd?